The power of jade

(ft.com) - Jade has been treasured in China for millennia, both as a rare gem considered more precious than gold or diamonds and as a store of wealth believed to possess powerful talismanic properties. Now the Stone of Heaven is making its presence felt in western jewellery. Jade is a generic cover-all term for two distinct minerals: jadeite and nephrite. They are among the toughest, strongest minerals on earth. About 5,000 years ago, nephrite, the more common and more opaque variety, was used for tools, weapons, ritualistic objects and burial ornaments. Jadeite, which is far rarer and lustrously translucent, only arrived in China in the 18th century, making its way there from the mines of Burma (now Myanmar). It took until 1863 to be recognised as a separate mineral, designated jadeite. The finest specimens, with their mesmerising emerald-green hue, were the prerogative of the emperor and his royal court, resulting in the term “imperial jadeite”.